Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals | Stacey Morgan Smith

SEO, like so many things in life, is always changing. The best practices of today may be optional tomorrow and obsolete next week.

The best way for me to stay on top of the changes and the latest news is to attend training, read blogs, and listen to other industry professionals. Because I spend 90% of most days working on customer SEO work, I have to squeeze a lot of learning into fairly restricted blocks of time. To get the most out of my time, I schedule training where and when I can.

I take advantage of conferences

Conferences squeeze a lot into a few days, but they give me the benefit of studying with different specialists in in my field, and because there aren’t many held in my area, they generally require me to devote a few days of my time. The rest of my team ensures our customers don’t feel my absence, and I dedicate myself to picking up as much new information as possible.

For instance, next week I am attending Search Marketing Expo East in New York. I’ll have the opportunity to meet and learn from people I respect in my field, including Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land, Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz, and Bruce Clay of Bruce Clay, Inc. In addition, representatives from each of the big 3 search engines will participate in sessions. Sessions cover topics such as duplicate content, PageRank sculpting, and local search.

I read industry blogs

I listen to the people who put time and money into researching SEO tactics, tips, and tools. There are a lot of blogs to choose from, so I’ve put 1o or so of my favorites on a dedicated tab of my iGoogle page. I spend a little time each morning, at lunch, or when I take a break from customer work to read the blog headlines from Graywolf’s SEO Blog, Pepperjam Blog,  and Search Engine Land News Blog. Recent topics include SEO testing, Google features, and information about conferences.

I follow respected peers

I’m on Twitter, and I follow posts by some extremely talented SEO specialists. If I miss a new Search Engine Land News Blog, you can bet one of my circle of Twitter friends will see it and post about it. @janetdmiller, @SEOptimizer, @SteveWeber, and @leeodden are a few of the informative Tweeters who help me stay current on SEO news. Recent tweets discuss search engine history, linkbait, and hosting.

You CAN do your own SEO inhouse. It takes a lot of time to learn best practices, to stay on top of the latest news, and to actually do the work. Effective study-time management will help you succeed.

– Stacey Morgan Smith